Eight & 322/Eight & 27

PHOTOS: School of Rock opens tonight

9/29/2023

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More photos at https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p871245906

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Artist lecture in Oil City

9/14/2023

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As part of CJ Hurley's exhibition titled "The Lyrical Landscape" at the new Graffiti Gallery in Oil City, the artist will present on the Romantic period of art and where it relates today and to his own work in the show.

Hurley will discuss the Romantic movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, including art, poetry and fiction. He will offer his insight into Romanticism’s continuing presence in the modern world.

"CJ views Romantic thought as an essential part of being human and has a special regard for Romanticism’s position regarding nature. This is a topic he often explores in his art and Romantic themes are backstory to his work on exhibit."

The Romantic Legacy gives an overview of Romanticism, its time period, and its relationship to the Age of Reason, which it immediately followed. A key theme of the presentation is the validity of Romantic period ideas in modern times.

The presentation discusses Romanticism’s reaction to the Industrial Revolution, and how it acted as a counter-point to industrialism and discussing the achievements of Romanticism, its demise, and how it survived in the modern consciousness, primarily through the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Hurley's talk will be from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the gallery at 228 Seneca St. Oil City.

His work will be available for viewing before and after the talk and light refreshments will be provided.

The Facebook event's page describes the exhibition as: "The Lyrical Landscape is a series of paintings that view nature as sacred, portraying that underlying sanctity with idealized images of profound beauty and consequence."

The Exhibit will be open through Saturday, October 14.

Throughout the duration of the exhibition, there will be a series of education and community engagement programs, including: an artist’s talk and painting demonstration, this lecture titled "The Romantic Legacy" lecture on Romanticism, and a screening of the documentary short, “From Dystopia to Utopia: The Artistic Visions of CJ Hurley.”

The exhibit and community educational events are supported in part by a grant from Erie Arts & Culture.

More information: https://www.facebook.com/events/615450957443523)

Heidi Krug and Artist’s Attic are offering an interpretative painting class in partnership with this program on Saturday, September 23.

Free to the public with support from an Erie Arts & Culture NW PA Art’s Recovery Grant

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Franklin fine arts gallery special exhibit coming to the vault

9/14/2023

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Coria Jacobs Gallery is hosting a VIP evening on Friday, September 22 from 5 to 8 p.m. to kick-off the opening of its Fall '23 Exhibition: "Arts In Common"!

Highlighting represented Pennsylvania artists, Coria Jacobs Gallery is showcasing a new collection of works by:

Josh Miller & Samantha Cortese | Paintings
Joshua Crawford | Wood
Paul Vladuchick | Photography
Danielle Scott & Stephanie Coria | Ceramics
Reid Jacobs | Glass

The evening will include artist talks, hors d'oeuvres and refreshments, artwork auctions, gift card giveaways, and more. You must purchase a ticket for this event but it include a complimentary drink and a chance for a giveaway.

The gallery is located in the Liberty Vault building at 1243 Liberty Street, in Franklin, Suite 103.

This relatively new gallery also accepts new artists, information on applying to be an artist represented can be found at https://www.coriajacobsgallery.com/representation.

Gallery hours open to the public are Friday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. For more information: Contact: call/text 814.350.5904 or email info@coriajacobsgallery.com.

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The Red Eye experience

9/3/2023

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Once again some playwrights, actors, directors, stage crew and tech folks joined together to do some experimental theater and learn more about the process of going from idea to production... in just 24 hours.

That is the Red Eye Theatre Project.

Six writers had from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. to watch actors audition, determine who they had to write for then write a short play over night.

In the morning, the actors gathered with their directors and began plotting out how they would go about memorizing lines, block the set, decide what props they need and how to organize it so it goes smoothly.

Tech folks made trips around to all the mini theater troupes, back and forth from the warehouse to collect and organize props and "build" sets that could be quickly placed and removed making way for the next play.

Sound and lighting was also gone over and the whole chaotic experience culminated in six short plays in front of a Barrow-Civic Theatre audience.

These are photos from the production circle and performances on Saturday night.

To view or purchase more photos please visit: https://sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p871813836
#supportlocaltheater #supportlocaljournalism

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Poetry break: Destiny L. Smith

8/14/2023

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Editors note: This was a post on social media a couple weeks back that we asked the author Destiny L. Smith, a local artist, if we could share it with our readers.

1973 my mother and I lived in little Italy
a rundown two story,
tucked between two larger buildings
split into two apartments
we lived downstairs
200 block of west 18th
at night my bathroom had
water bugs the size of monsters
they would scatter when
you turned on the light
it’s gone now
that house
someone tore it down
now a place where old men sit
on folding chairs smoking cigars
talking about the good old days
in that kitchen mom was crying
praying to the silent god by the corner window
Ian Kirk’s mother called from Scotland to say her son was married with two kids and to stay in America
my first passport was never used
Saint Patricks day at the corner bar
offered a remedy
mom and dad married not long after
dads mom, my Polish grandmother looked my mom up and down when they first met,
I’m sure she was tired
already raised her many children on delicious food and lots of prayers
mom got the big family every orphan craves dad got a second wife and a fourth daughter
small me felt loved
three new sisters,
the eldest tender and kind
the middle indifferent
and the youngest traumatized
all of us abandoned in our own way
trying to find our place in the world
Polish people use butter like
a fairy godmother uses her wand
Everything gets covered with it
butter on bread before the lunch meat,
butter on noodles before the sauce,
butter on all the cooked veggies
and butter on warm cake
for a hungry child butter was a simple joy
dad likes his toast buttered corner to corner
I’ve always had a memory like an elephant
my mind is like a time traveling ghost
I have the ability to open any door in my past
wandering all I want in each moment as if it was happening now
not long before my parents met
I was sent to bed without supper
mom had a blue floral Avon lady’s suitcase
with tiny little sample lipsticks and to my luck some leftover crackers to tide me over
why did parents put “bad” kids to bed without dinner?
I turn the page in my ghost travel memories and my dad is passed out in his vomit on the second floor of my aunts house
before he found sobriety,
it’s a testament to how far he’s come
we lived in my dad’s sister house
at beginning of my parents life together
a swimming pool in the backyard and skinny dipping with my sisters in the rain
I was so afraid of getting into trouble
same house had a claw foot tub
mom bathed my great grandmother
her breasts floated in the warm water
like clouds
great granny Sophie taught me that
#1 was pee, #2 was poop and #3 was diarrhea
what a thing to learn at three
her hands were knotted up with arthritis
curled like a crows feet on a branch
her accent thick as molasses
she’d come over from the old country
took a boat and left her whole world
eventually married
an Armenian tailor In Philadelphia
not a very nice man as my uncle tells it
he died early with a bad heart
granny moved to Erie
she left this world in 1976
scent is the safe deposit box of memories
bacon grease in a tin can and I’m in my grandmas kitchen
the one that adopted my mom from the orphanage
a stern human but her pie crust made with lard was so tender and flaky
and her garden as lush as Eden
I tell these little bits of my history because there is so much to say but mostly because I feel everything with the intensity of the sun memories burning my mind and heart
Others I here, don’t remember things
or feel so deeply that they are paralyzed
are they empty vessels that can float through life unbothered?
why am I the ghost traveler
why are others midnight with no dreams?
my blood, my kin are plagued with generational trauma
an oil slick of wounds we can not heal
each one runs through my mind like a horror film with no end and I drown over and over
still I search for a solution, resolution and peace
the people are living in some fantasy world that everything is okay
we could discuss this philosophically but we know how it ends.
there’s an endless supply of memories but for today that is all.

Destiny L Smith 8/23

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Graffiti Gallery to open new location with solo show by OC artist

8/12/2023

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Oil City artist CJ Hurley will hold the inaugural show in the new Graffiti Gallery space at 228 Seneca Street.

Hurley's show, titled "The Lyrical Landscape", will be a five-week, multi-faceted exhibition featuring recent paintings, a program on Romanticism in art history, an artist demonstration, and community outreach with programs for students.

The opening reception for the show will be held from 6 to 9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 8. The exhibit will run through Saturday, Oct. 14.

The show will mark a new phase for the Graffiti Gallery, which was been in the basement area of the National Transit Annex Building for more than a decade. The Oil City Arts Council, which coordinates the not-for-profit art space, recently announced it was moving the gallery to street-level space down the block.

The move will be complete when Hurley opens his show, which describes as a "fresh look at his lifelong influences" such as the art of Japan, the Post-Impressionists, Art Nouveau artists, and the teachings of Arthur Wesley Dow.

“The new work has moved towards creating a greater sense of depth, with a greater understanding of recognizing the shapes found in nature.

This is combined with the concentrated use of small details, rendered in ink, which, generally, dominate the foregrounds of the compositions," he said. "I revisited the teachings of Arthur Wesley Dow, and they hit me in a new way.

Revisiting Dow has altered my view of Japanese art, which has been my greatest influence over the decades, and I think the changes in my approach to image making (are) evident with this new series.

The Lyrical Landscape is my ultimate vision of nature. It is a vision of our world where people are guests of a majestic and sacred place – not despoilers, exploiters and profiteers.”

"We are honored to have been awarded a NWPA Arts Recovery Grant from Erie Arts and Culture to fund the programs that accompany the exhibition," Hurley and his wife, Barbara Pierce, posted in their art newsletter.

Hurley accepted into regional art organization

It has been a busy summer for Hurley, who was recently accepted into the Northwestern Pennsylvania Artists Association.

NPAA is a regional arts organization based in Erie. It was founded in 1974 to help professional artists promote the visual arts and to protect their artistic endeavors from being exploited by an uninformed public.

The founders based the NPAA on the national organization, "Artist Equity," which required its members to be accepted to at least three national exhibits.

Now in its 49th year, the NPAA organizes several annual exhibits for its 130+ members.

The organization also donates college scholarship monies to local graduating high school seniors, and generally promotes the visual arts in the region.

Hurley's first exhibition with the group is at the Kada Gallery in Erie. The open reception was on Aug. 4 and the show runs through Sept. 2.

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Harvey is a must see

8/1/2023

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The Barrow-Civic Theatre is a mad house these days with four productions on the burner and youth theater camp just ending. Cued up next for an audience is the Off-Barrow production of "Harvey," which opens Thursday in the Little Theatre.

The 1944 Pulitzer Prize winning play, written by Mary Chase, follows Elwood P. Dowd and his imaginary six-foot tall white rabbit as Dowd naively goes through life happy while others think he's a bit nuts.

Dress rehearsal on Tuesday found cast and crew working out the finishing touches in order to be ready by 7:30 p.m for the already-sold-out opening night show Thursday.

Dowd is played by Jim Nash of Titusville, a veteran of many recent Barrow plays. He is joined by Brooke Lawrie, Kent Cornmesser, Dawn Polito, John Herrick, Melana Vaugh, Andrew Ritsig, Joshua Devlin, Ashlynne Cornmesser, Cindy Heffern and Devin McIntire.

It is directed by Aaron Ritsig and produced by Nicholas Hess.

There will be five performances in four days. Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and matinees both Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $20. To purchase tickets visit the box office of online here.

Other shows coming to the Barrow

Aug. 11, 12, 19 and 20

Red-Eye Theatre

Auditions - Sept. 1 at 7:30 p.m
Performance - Sept 2 at 7:30 p.m.

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Getting "framed" in Oil City

7/30/2023

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One word you'll hear Kyla Parkinson use repeatedly is vision. The owner of Victorian City Art & Frame, a Liberty Street storefront in Franklin, Pennsylvania, has ideas flying through her brain like a murmuration of starlings over a vast great plains landscape.

She recently pointed toward a set of antique hand tools piled on a rustic bench as she described her stripped-down, raw vision for a new second business location in Oil City, roughly 10 miles north, less as the crow flies, and described how she wants to empower others in the craft she loves. Parkinson saw a unique need in Oil City, a town rich in artists who, though self-sufficient, are still in need of quality framing supplies.

Part of a vision, in business, is understanding what is needed in the place you set out a shingle. Oil City is a hub of relocated artists who have been drawn to the low cost of living in a city that is seeking redefinition from its oil industry past that has mostly left it high and dry.

Parkinson opened her second storefront during Oil Heritage Festival, calling the shop Oil City Art & Frame. She admits it is a work in progress and her hours are subject to change, but she is ready to start servicing the needs of the art community with quality supplies for the do-it-yourselfer and expertly trained framing advice and making for those who are not do-it-yourselfers.

She will also offer classes on the intricacies of framing so more folks can enjoy the craftsmanship of decorating their home with their own art.

She is located on Seneca Street across the street from the National Transit building, the one-time offices of big oil money, and later the symbolic headquarters of do-gooder Ralph Nader. He gave the building to Oil City for a buck if they promised to leave it as a headquarters for non-profits. For many years, space within the building held the offices for the Arts Oil City relocation program, which offers affordable studio space to artists who would move to the area.

Over the years this space has ebbed and flowed with this concept. The offices have moved but it still houses several artists and a few art-related businesses and galleries.

The Oil City Art & Frame will, if Parkinson's vision is correct, help those artists and more with options for their framing and display needs.

“If you need six inches of tape or two screws you can come here,” she said. Parkinson hopes that her supplies and expertise will help garner a family of artists who can work toward the greater good of getting their creations displayed properly and professionally.

Parkinson’s vision is to help artist’s who already do a lot of their own framing as well as those folks who have art they want to be a centerpiece within their home. She has been providing the latter, especially in Franklin, and hopes to grow even more connections now in Oil City.

At least, that is her vision.

A chance to show your talents while showcasing local industry

In connection with Labor Day, Parkinson's vision also is bringing in the community industries and businesses.

Parkinson wants to see what working in Venago looks like. So she is sponsoring a photography contest focused on the region's industrial side, including the people, equipment and operations.

She is hoping photographers or others will document the important people who work to help others in what they do. She hopes this show will help support businesses and explain the important work of the folks who might otherwise go unnoticed.

Pictures are submitted electronically through the QR code included on the contest poster and the top 20 will be printed for a show on August 31 in Franklin.

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A chance to hear a world class gospel vocalist

7/27/2023

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The Barrow-Civic Theatre will be hosting the Grammy and Dove Award winning artist Guy Penrod in October

Known for his work as lead singer for the Gaither Vocal Band in the late 1990s and early 2000s he also has worked with country legends Garth Brooks and Shania Twain.

Penrod will take the Barrow stage at 7:30 p.m on October 20.

Tickets are $44 and can be purchased by visiting the Barrow-Civic website by clicking here.

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Art 'time capsule' to be opened for viewing, sales later this month

7/13/2023

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When the Oil City Library hosts an art sale this month, it will be like stepping into a time capsule, according to organizers.

"Discover this time capsule collection of Wealtha Vann Ausdall artwork, spanning decades & styles, and hidden away for years until it was discovered in a trunk," the group posted online. "Wealtha was a local artist, instructor and teacher at Oil City High School for many decades. Her work is varied, & these pieces include portraits, landscapes, local oil fields, & other whimsical subjects of the times."

Pieces will be put on display and offered for sale for the first time on July 21 and 22 in the library's historic second floor theatre space. The sale will run from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on July 21 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 22. Art will be sold on a first-come, first-serve basis.

The event is being coordinated by Nicholas Hess of The Printer’s Cabinet & Curiosities with help from Gavin Eisenman of Center & Elm Antiques and framing onsite by Victorian City Art & Frame.

A portion of the proceeds will go toward an art scholarship for future graduating seniors at Oil City High School. The sale is also part of the library's effort to increase public awareness of the ongoing renovations of the theatre space.

"This is a rare opportunity to own a piece of local art by a prolific, listed artist," organizers said.